True Blood Video

Sookie short stories

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

It’s been quite a week for HBO’s critical and ratings darling True Blood. First, Sunday’s Season 2 finale finally found a way to answer the question of how to kill maenad Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes) but then left us with a slew of new questions: What is Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin)? Who kidnapped vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer)? What’s going on with young lovers Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll)? And for LGBT fans of the show, will we see more of Evan Rachel Wood’s lesbian vampire queen Sophie Anne?

Then, on Monday series creator/writer/director Alan Ball revealed to Entertainment Weekly that next summer’s third season will feature more vampire royalty when we meet the vampire King of Mississippi (the recently cast Denis O’Hare, Milk) who will share scenes with Wood.

And if the week of True Blood news wasn’t enough, ratings for the finale were up 100 percent compared with the Season 1 capper, but down slightly from the penultimate episode of Season 2. Still, the 5.1 million viewers is nothing to turn your nose up at considering the show airs on pay cabler HBO.

So the Wedding Blogs and Twittosphere is a buzz with what a True Blood wedding might look like. If you're not a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse novels or the TV series, the following might not make a whole lot of sense, but you might still get some elegant ideas for a gold and silver wedding.

Seeing how Bill was planning to take Sookie to Vermont (I love that this must be the first or only place that vamp/human weddings are allowed), I thought it would be neat to figure out how they'd do it up, Vermont style.

“It’s for grown-ups, for one thing,” Greene says of the first installment in his two-part Dracula “memoir.” “I’ve never read a ‘Twilight’ novel, but I see Robert Pattinson everywhere I look, like everybody else. It does seem a bit like we’re in the Hannah Montana era of gothic fiction, doesn’t it? There’s even an Edward Cullen Barbie Doll coming out. I think they’re accessorizing him as a stewardess.

“Incarnadine is hoping to reach more traditional readers. People who will hopefully like having their assumptions challenged a little bit.”

The conceit of Greene’s novel is that it’s a “newly discovered Victorian artifact” once owned by Mina Murray Harker, the heroine of Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic “Dracula.” The handwritten manuscript languished for a century in the cornerstone of a remote Bulgarian farmhouse before being excavated by looters. Their “minor literary payload” turned out to be a first-person chronicle by Dracula himself, covering over three centuries of both his human and “undead” existence.

In what would be a boon to Sookie-Eric fans, True Blood boss Alan Ball isn’t ruling out incorporating a major (and controversial) plot point from the books that, up to now, has only been hinted at in the series (spoiler alert): That Bill came to Bon Temps and seduced Sookie with the ulterior motive of getting her to work for Queen Sophie-Anne.

“It’s certainly something that I found really compelling in the books,” says Ball of Bill’s deep dark secret. “I was like, ‘Wow.’ But I can’t really tell you what I’m going to do story-wise. So much of the appeal of the show depends on the element of surprise.”

Bill-Sookie shippers are no doubt hoping Ball opts not to go there. In addition to driving a stake through the heart of their favorite couple, it could push Sookie into the arms of Eric.

For our last episode of Blood Work! Too, we took a tip from MaryAnn (”the Bitch”) and said “yes” to the dress, the Meat Tree, the potted plant hats, and – most importantly – the crazy.

So how did last night’s marriage-happy episode strike us? Were the loose ends (and runny Eggs) suitably dealt with? And of course, what do we think might be next for our drama-plagued Francophiles (Bill and Sookie), service industry members (Lafayette, Terry, Tara, Sam, etc.) and Mountain Dew enthusiasts (Handsome Woman A and Handsome Woman B)?

Putting the final bite on its sophomore season, HBO's vampire series True Blood averaged 5.1 million viewers for the premiere of its season-concluder Sunday night.

Although the Sept. 13 episode didn't measure up to the 5.3 million who watched the Aug. 23 installment, the season finale improved 109% over its rookie-season predecessor, which drew 2.5 million watchers.

Factoring in encores, DVR viewing and HBO On Demand showings, True Blood averaged 12 million viewers per episode, making the Anna Pacquin-starrer HBO's second-ranked series behind The Sopranos.

Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News

USAToday

•CW's mixed bag. The Vampire Diaries drew 4.9 million viewers Thursday, CW's biggest series premiere yet, and more than doubling the crowd for Tuesday's debut of Melrose Place (2.3 million) and the return of 90210 (2.4 million). America's Next Top Model (3.2 million Wednesday) had its lowest CW start.

•Toothy. The second-season finale of HBO's True Blood (5.1 million Sunday) doubled last year's finish, while Hung wrapped up its inaugural run with 2.9 million.

This is it, the big finale. And if you thought True Blood went bonkers crazy WTF before, well then you've never seen an entire town marry off a God to a cow and a giant meat uterus. Spoilers ahead!

Remember last week when I said that the I liked it best when True Blood went bananas? I may have been a little hasty. Turns out wrapping up this sex party was pretty easy to do, if you do nothing but subject the audience to pure unbridled lunacy. While I'm all for the whole hog True Blood, I think it crossed the rat shit rubicon, a phrase I really didn't think I was ever going to use again, a month ago and this episode was just some really strange, disjointed crap. But thank goodness for teen vampirism, Claudine Clark and another round of Yahtzee. Because the whole thing turned around and revved up for the third season half way through, but not without some pretty huge surprises.

Con: So we're back at the nest and Tara and Eggs acting like a pair of terrible Disney henchmen bumbling about and fawning all over said egg. Then Eggs made this face and I punched the TV....

Pro: Charlaine Harris cameo at the bar, yay! You rule Harris, good to see her getting cred, this is the kind of stuff that belongs in a finale. And I would have to agree with you dear, I did not see the town folk building a giant meat uterus in Sookie's front yard ever happening either. Whew.

Con: Charlaine as much as you fight the Twilight comparisons why would you let them cameo you the same way Stephanie Meyer cameod in Twilght....they are pretty similar.